cheater meals - club house alfredo with asparagus and fake crab

Some weeks I get shafted at work. By which I mean I get the late shift, and while I get lovely mornings to myself to read and quilt and have a fancy pancake and spiced apple breakfast (yes, I will share that eventually, as it's a favourite) I come home after 9pm tired and cranky and the last thing I want to do at that moment is make dinner. Sometimes I'll luck out and my mom or Bunny will have something ready for me, other times there are leftovers (if I'm smart I made soup earlier in the week), but some days I get home at about 9:30 and am faced with the task of making dinner. Which doesn't make me a happy camper to begin with at that hour, but it's why I have cheater hacks.

Not every meal needs to be fancy. For the most part, all that most meals need is some carbs, some protein and some great vegetables. Nights like this, I'll rely on some prepackaged foods that I usually avoid, like a packet of Club House alfredo sauce and some imitation crab. Spruced up with some asparagus, fresh parmesan and a clove or two of garlic and things get good. Or at least, my mom and Bunny get happy and I stop being grumpy.

Spruced Up Club House Alfredo with Crab and Asparagus

Ingredients

• 1/2 package of rotini or penne
• 1 package imitation crab
• 1 bunch asparagus
• fresh parmesan
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced (or, if you really feel like cheating you can buy this stuff in jars)
• 1 packet Club House alfredo sauce and related ingredients
• 3/4 cups milk
• 3 tbsp butter or margarine

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of well salted water to boil.
2. Rinse asparagus. Snap off the ends - wherever they snap naturally is good. Roughly chop the aspargus lengths into thirds and set aside.
3. Cut the "crab" into inch long slices.
4. When water comes to a boil, put pasta and set timer according to package directions. Depending on the dried pasta you're using here this will probably be between 7-11 minutes. Keep an eye on the time and when there are five minutes left throw the asparagus into the pot with the pasta.
5. In a large saute pan over medium heat, melt the butter.
6. Throw the garlic in once butter is melted, stir for about 2 minutes.
7. Add the milk to the butter-garlic mixtures, as well as the Club House packet. Stir around until it's an even mix. Stir occasionally as the sauce comes to a light simmer, which is where things start to thicken.
8. When the timer goes, add the crab pieces to the alfredo sauce. Drain the pasta and asparagus.
9. Add the pasta and vegetables to the sauce, mix until everything is evenly coated. Grate about 1/4 cup fresh parm over the pasta, stir around again.
10. Eat. If you're me, then promptly go to bed.

the ultimate lazy meal

I've shared a number of lazy meals with you over the past few months, but I have a new "recipe" for you that really will result in the most amazing lazy meal ever.

Directions:

1. Find a spouse, significant other, parent, sibling or close friend.
2. Tell them that you are exhausted, and if they would do you the biggest favour on earth you will be eternally grateful.
3. Throw in some bribery until they agree to help you out.
4. Say "Please make me dinner. I need to eat and I can't think straight enough to cook."
5. Sit, relax or nap while they do the work.
6. Enjoy whatever it is they have concocted for you, even if it's the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten. (Although it probably won't be.)

chicken stir fry with sesame-hoisin sauce

This whole living at my mom's thing really cuts into my kitchen routines. There's less baking going on, and I feel a little bit discouraged from baking due to all the bakery junk my mom brings home (I don't touch it, but Bunny does and I feel like I'm clogging up the house with junk when I bake now). Even cooking is sometimes a non-starter, if I'm working late, or just into a long week, and often as not the days I feel like cooking someone has already beat me to it.

Also, the "lazy meals" tag here might seem a little out of place. There's a lot of chopping and such for prep work. However, if you plan your meals in advance you can do this ahead of time ... or just buy precut veggies and chicken. If you don't have overnight to marinate your chicken, just marinate it for as long as you reasonably can. It adds extra flavour and juiciness but it isn't necessary.
So I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm leaning on some reinterpretations of old favourites right now. If redoing the same stir fries and tacos and pastas keeps us fed I can be happy enough with that. I have to do a bit of a twist, though.

Tonight's chicken stir fry is a bit of a combination between soy marinated chicken and a hoisin stir fry. I wanted to give the chicken a bit of a marinade to help give it more moisture and depth of flavour before adding it into the stir fry, but I found that I actually didn't want the marinade to be the same as the stir fry sauce.

As with all my recipes, this invites some interpretation. If you don't like the vegetables I've chosen, switch them up. If you're not into chicken, try pork or beef. If you don't like the heat, leave the chili oil out.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 bell peppers, cut into strips
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 medium zucchini, sliced
• 2 cups snap peas (or snow peas)
• 3 skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized chunks or stips
• a handful of sesame seeds, to garnish
• vegetable oil to cook with (about 2 tbsp)

For the chicken marinade

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 inch chunk of fresh ginger, finely grated
• 1 clove of garlic, minced or grated
• 1 tsp lemon juice

For the hoisin sauce

• 1/2 cup hoisin
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tsp white sugar
• 1tbsp lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tsp chili flakes in oil
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
• 1-2 inches fresh ginger, grated

Directions

1. The night before, or early in the day, prepare your marinade. Wisk together the soy sauce, hoisin, sesame oil, ginger, garlic and lemon juice.
2. Place your chicken strips in a large freezer bag (or just a bowl, if that's how you prefer to roll) and pour the marinade overtop. The nice thing about a bag is you can squish things around for optimal coverage.
3. Chuck it in the fridge for the night and let the marinade work it's magic. The longer the chicken marinates, the more juicy and flavourful it will be.
4. The next day, prepare your vegetables.
5. Prepare your stir fry sauce, by combining hoisin sauce, soy, sesame oil, water, sugar, lemon juice, garlic, ginger and chili oil. Wisk it all together and set aside for later.
6. In a large skillet over high heat, heat about 1 tbsp of vegetable oil. When it's sizzling hot, drain most of the marinade from the chicken and put the chicken in the pan. Cook for about 5-7 minutes flipping frequently, until the chicken is completely opaque.
7. Remove the chicken, set aside for later.
8. Add a little bit more oil to the pan. Once that's nice and hot, add the snap peas. Cook these about 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. You're looking for this to turn a bright, vibrant green.
9. Add the pepper strips to the pan, continue to stir frequently. Do this for another minute or two.
10. Add the zucchini, continue to stir. Cook for about one minute.
11. Add the chicken back to the skillet. You'll want to stir it all up at this point so everything is fairly evenly distributed. Pour the sauce over the whole mixture and cook this up for about 2-3 minutes. You're looking for the sauce to start to gently simmer and get some heat in that.
12. Serve over a bed of rice or noodles, with a sprinkling of sesame seeds on top for extra fanciness.

cheating while cooking

It's stinking hot here. The last thing I want to do is turn on an oven, but I still like a warm meal for lunch. Given that I'm the only one home for lunch (unless I want to run over next door and have lunch with Momma Bunny, but she's usually pretty busy around lunchtime) I also don't want to put a whole lot of work into it.

Luckily, my mom has the best cheater's tool ever (Bunny and I have one too, but don't often pull it out). The George Foreman grill. All I have to do is ruffle through the crisper drawer, come out with some vegetables and whack them on the grill.

Seriously the easiest thing ever. I take a handful of broccoli and cauliflower florets, or a bunch of asparagus, and chuck them on the grill for ten minutes. Drizzle them with olive oil, or spread on a bit of butter, and grate up some parmesan cheese on them and they are a perfect side dish (or lunch).

It's also nuts how easy this is. I've been doing it every day.

garlic hoisin stir fry with mixed vegetables

Maybe I've mentioned it before, but stir fries are popular in our house. A go to meal. Once again, at mid-day, I'm chopping vegetables for one. I'm also very excited to take another stab at making my own sauce. The last time I did my own sauce there was one major thing that needed improving: we wanted more.

Why am I not surprised? We like things saucy. I have been known to eat gravy with a spoon. (Not, like, a whole bowl of gravy or anything, but I will stand over a pot of gravy and taste-test far more than needed. Non-stop.) Bunny douses everything he can in hot sauce, or bbq sauce or whatever else he can get his hands on. For stir fries he has been very clear in that he wants enough sauce to heavily flavour his rice or noodles and would I please just use more.

So this is a double-sauce recipe. If you don't like things as saucy as we do, reduce things a little. We weren't swimming in sauce at the end, but could easily scoop up a few good spoonfuls to dump on Bunny's noodles. Alternately, if you're trying to feed more than two people, bulk up on your veggies (or other additions) and go crazy with the sauce.

I'm also funny in that I like all my veggies to be similarly shaped. So everything that can be cut into strips or matchsticks is. But that's just me.

Stir Fry

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 bell peppers, cut into 1/2 inch strips
• 1 zucchini, cut into matchsticks
• 1 bunch bok choi, rinsed well, trimmed and cut lengthwise down the ribs
• 1 red onion, finely sliced
• 1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or grated
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp chili flakes in oil
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp cooking oil (such as peanut or safflower)

Directions:

1. Chop and prep all your vegetables and garlic in mise en place bowls. You'll need these all easily at hand when you're ready to start cooking.
2. In a small bowl, mix hoisin, soy sauce, chili flakes, sesame oil, salt, sugar, water, lemon juice and garlic powder. Wisk together until well mixed.
3. Heat the cooking oil in a large skillet or wok over a burner on high.
4. Add onions and garlic to skillet, saute for 2 minutes. (We like our onions cooked down - if you don't, start the onions with the carrots.)
5. Add carrots to the skillet, saute for another two minutes.
6. Add zuccini and bell peppers, saute for about one minute.
7. Add the bok choi, saute for about two minutes. You're looking for the greens to begin to wilt.
8. Add the sauce to the mix. Stir things up and make sure that the sauce is coating things fairly evenly.
9. Remove from heat. Serve on a bed of rice or noodles (we used udon noodles). Garnish with a handful of sesame seeds or finely chopped green onion. Eat. Enjoy. Repeat.

stir fry day

Some meals end up on the dinner table here with great regularity. The simple, easy dishes that don't take too much thought. Easy pastas, macaroni and cheese, fried rice, tons of different soups, chicken and greens, and roasts and potatoes are all common dishes for us. The basics I fall back on.

Another basic that we do a lot is a simple stir fry. This is another one of those dishes that mostly consists of bits of this and that in the fridge. It's a meat-free meal I can sneak in under Bunny's radar, although it's not necessarily cheap. It's also a good place to use up bits of leftovers from the week (I can't tell you how many times a roast is re-incarnated in a stir fry here), and sometimes we stir fry just so that we can have frozen shrimp.

It's also a dish that lets me be a little bit lazy about my cooking, and do my prep in stages. Actually cooking this takes maybe ten minutes, start to finish, it's the prep that takes time. Oftentimes you'll find me around noon, peeling and chopping veggies for a stir fry; when I was working I'd do my chopping the night before. In the past I've always used the biggest lazy hack of all: bottled stir fry sauce. Which really does make this easier (or, more accurately, harder to mess up) but it's so much more fun playing with flavours on my own.

The vegetables in this dish are reflective of what Bunny and I keep in the fridge, and what we buy for stir fries. We've always got uses for carrots, onions and bell peppers so we always have them on hand. The great thing about a dish like this, though, is that you can use whatever you want. Have a zucchini? Replace one of your peppers with that. Want mushrooms? Throw them in. I love adding in baby bok choi, and I have a feeling that even some spinach might be nice added in at the end. If I had a can of baby corn I would toss it in this dish in a heartbeat.

Everyday Stir Fry

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp hot chili oil
• 1 tsp granulated sugar
•  1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 inches fresh ginger, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or grated
• 2 bell peppers, cut into strips
• 2 carrots, cut to matchsticks
• 1 red onion, sliced
• snow peas, one handful (yeah that's how I measured)
• peanut or vegetable oil, for cooking

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine water, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, chili oil and lemon juice.
2. In a large skillet or wok, heat cooking oil. When hot, add garlic, ginger and onions to the pan. Saute about 1 minute.
3. Add carrots to the pan. Saute about 2 minutes. Add bell peppers, saute another 2-3 minutes. Finally add the snow peas. Saute a further minute.
4. Add your sauce to the pan. Jumble everything around so that all your veggies get equally coated with the sauce. Keep this on the heat about one or two minutes.
5. Serve over rice or noodles. Enjoy.

beef stew

Tonight we're planning on having one of the simplest dinners I know how to make: beef stew. In fact, it's so easy that I almost think that beef stew is a cop out dinner. This is the process:

• Beef cubes, to be browned in the dutch oven.
• Quickly sear off some chunked up carrots and potatoes, to give them some texture on the outside.
• Cook up some onions and minced garlic for flavour.
• Cover it all with beef broth, and let slowly simmer all afternoon.
• Near the end, I'll throw in some green beans and frozen peas for colour and extra nutrients and adjust my seasonings.

Later, I'll send Bunny to the corner store to pick up some crusty bread to dip into the lovely juices and we'll enjoy this, maybe with a glass of wine. (Or not.)

It's not a dinner I make too often, but essentially these are the types of dinners that are the mainstays of our diets. Things that take minimal prep work, that can cook unsupervised for long periods of time, and that end up with deliciousness.

dressing up your store-bought sauce

I don't always make everything from scratch. Really, I don't think most people do. Sometimes it's easier to use that jar of alfredo sauce, or the canned vegetables, or whatever pre-made component just makes life simple.

Stir fry is a fairly common meal in our house. It's easy, it's filling, I can do it with just whatever leftovers are around the home, or I can do it with a big pile of fresh veggies purchased for this very purpose. I can make it all vegetarian, I can add meat or seafood or tofu. It's just easy. You all know how much I like easy meals, right? Other than chopping everything up, a stir fry is the easiest meal I know.

Of course, the easiest way to make it easy is using a pre-made sauce. We tend to keep our kitchen stocked with VH Stir Fry sauces (orange ginger, teriyaki, garlic hoisin, sczechuan are our staples) but the thing is, they can be kind of boring. Good, but boring.

So, when I pulled out the bottle of garlic hoisin sauce yesterday, I knew I wanted to do something more. I didn't want to make an entire sauce from scratch, but I knew I wanted something a little bit extra special. So I looked around.

I thought about all the lovely veitnamese soup bowls I've had at various restaurants over the years, and how I would without fail use both the hoisin sauce and the chili flakes in oil. That would add a nice kick of heat to the meal. I had inadvertently used sesame oil in my pan, so I tossed so sesame seeds over the dish when it was finished. To finish things off, I added a small squirt of lemon juice.

The meal I ended up with was a hundred times better than what I'd began with. A few little touches really brighten things up.

Bunny does the same with his tomato sauce, adding fresh herbs and lots of minced garlic when he has it.

How do you update a store-standard?

chinese new year dinner + spicy orange green beans

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I didn't entirely realise that today is Chinese New Year until I spoke to my mother last night, and was reminded of the fact when I was watching the news this morning. So, since our week's menu is very loosey goosey, it seemed natural to make up a Chinese inspired dinner.

Nothing fancy, really. Frozen pork and vegetables potstickers we'd bought on sale. Rice. The big gun was actually the beans today, because I wanted to spice things up a bit. I've done nicely sauted green beans before, often with a nice kick, and I hugely enjoy them. So I figured I'd share with Bunny and you.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound of green beans (or two good handfuls), ends trimmed off
• 1 large clove of garlic, minced
• 1 inch chunk of ginger, grated
• 1 orange, zested and juiced (separately)
• 1 teaspoon chili oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Directions

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Blanche beans approximately 1 minute, quickly run under cold water or in an ice bath.
2. Heat sesame oil in saute pan. Add garlic, quickly saute about 1 minute.
3. Add beans, stir to coat with oil. At this point, add orange zest and chili oil . Saute another minute to two minutes.
4. Add orange juice, saute another 2 minutes.
5. Serve!

Seriously easy. You can adjust the chili oil up and orange juice up and down to change your heat levels and sweetness levels. Bunny rates this at a 4 on the heat scale (his scale has 11 as "too hot to handle". Don't ask.)

menu planning & leftover recipes

When Bunny went back to school, the biggest expense that we both knew we needed to cut was our grocery budget. We used to go to the store with only a vague idea what we were eating throughout the week, and we'd wing it - buying whatever looked best, or sounded yummiest or set off my imagination. Our shopping habits have since changed: now I make a meal plan and a grocery list before we head out, we try to incorporate things that are already in our pantry or fridge into the meals, and I've put an emphasis of trying to learn how to cook more with legumes and grains (beautiful barley dishes, or curried lentils have been amazing choices lately).

These changes (weekly menus, set grocery lists) have turned out to have big benefits, in several ways. Our trips to the grocery store are more organized, and the number at the register tends to be much more reasonable. Usually we're under budget. The contents of our shopping cart shock me: mostly produce, and fresh ingredients. Sure, a bag of flower or sugar gets tossed in, or snack bars, but the bulk of our purchases are eggs, milk, and vegetables, or bulk grains. We've cut waaaay back on processed food. Now, this is partly because I bake so much, but it's become very unusual for super processed foods to grace our plates. Even better, there is no stress about what's for dinner? because (unless we've decided we're lazy and would like to opt in to frozen pizza) it's easy done.

So how do you plan an effective menu? Here are a few tips:

• Be realistic. If a recipe is outside of your comfort zone (cooking wise), save it for a night that you have time. Don't put too many ambitious items in a given day or week - you'll go crazy.
• Use what you have. Take inventory of your pantry & try incorporate what you already have in your plan. Use up leftover produce from the other week. Already have 3 kinds of rice? Maybe you don't need a fourth. If you have shelves of food that never get touched, find a recipe to use them in.
• Planned leftovers. There are two ways to do this.
• Leftover as a meal. If you made a great roast, there's no reason that you can't have that for dinner twice in the week. Or freeze meals and have them next week.
• Leftovers as a portion of a meal. Reincorporate the leftover meat, or plan to make extra rice/pasta/veggies to use in another dish. From my childhood: a roast beef inevitably meant that we would have shepherd's pie later in the week. Roast a whole chicken? Plan on making soup or chicken salad or pot pie.
• Don't be afraid to try something new. Try a new vegetable, or a new way of preparing an old favourite every now an again. Variety is the spice of life. (See the first tip, though, for a warning)

So with that in mind, I'm also going to give you an amazingly easy leftover recipe to play with.

What's-In-The-Fridge Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• Rice, cooked - 11/2 cups
• Eggs - 2-3 large, lightly beaten
• Vegetables - approximately 2 cups roughly chopped or small sized mixed vegetables of choice
• Onion - 1 medium, diced
• Garlic cloves - 2 minced
• 1/4 cup low flavour oil (I used peanut and canola)
• 2-4 tbsp soy sauce
• 2-4 tbsp sesame oil
• Protein, cooked - approximately one cup, roughly chopped.

Ingredient side note:
For the vegetables, I used 1 cup frozen peas plus 1 can corn. If I'd had leftovers from another meal I would have used them.
Rice? Basmati leftover from curry earlier in the week.
Protein? I chopped up some leftover pork roast.

Directions:

1. Heat 1/4 cup oil is large saute pan. When hot, add onions & garlic; saute until onions are translucent. Add vegetables, saute until warm, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from pan, set aside in medium bowl for later.
2. Add meat to pan. Saute until warmed through. (Note: if you want to use raw meat, simply cut into small portions and cook it through. It'll work). Remove from pan, set aside in same bowl.
3. Add eggs to pan. Scrambled, stirring constantly. Cook until solid but still slightly moist. Break into small pieces. Remove from pan, set aside. (I left these in a separate bowl, but it's unnecessary.)
4. Ensure enough oil is in pan to just barely cover bottom (if not, add a little more). Add cooked rice to pan, stir to ensure each grain is coated with oil. Spread into even layer on bottom of pan. Every few minutes stir and flip the rice, and respread. You should notice the rice picking up colour, and as you continue cooking you may notice that you have to stir more frequently to stop the rice from sticking to the pan. When the rice reaches the desired level of colour (colour means flavour), add vegetables, meat and egg. (For me, this step was approximately 5 minutes). Mix until there is a fairly even distribution of fillings in the rice.
5. Add soy sauce and sesame oil, mix the oil and sauce in thoroughly. Serve.
6. Garnish, if desired with green onion.

This is just about the most adaptable dish I know. I've made it with just egg and vegetables. I've made it with beans. I've made it with fresh veggies, with frozen, with a million different protein sources. This is one of the ultimate meals for when you don't have much in your pantry, or to use up all your last little bits of leftovers.

lazy day dinners

Have you caught on that I've been pretty darn lazy around the kitchen this week? Maybe the last two weeks, really.

Last night we went out to Mi Mi's - best Vietnamese place I know, and an old YP staple of Bunny's. It was extra awesome, as our moms had come up to go dress shopping with me (and oh what a story that is - for later) so Bunny and I got to share one of our favourite every day restaurants with them, which was nice. Plus, it's always awesome to remind ourselves of what great friends our moms are. It's a hoot.

Today, we are being lazy as well. I woke up, started thinking about how I hadn't slept well at all last night, and that we need a real bedroom makeover. Or, we could just you know, by some window coverings. I'm sensitive to light, so not having anything over our bedroom window doesn't really do me any favours. As the day progressed, I started to think that really, our home is a mess and we need to fix that and I just don't have the energy to do that and cook tonight.

Which promptly reminded me that I had a couple of quiches kicking around the freezer, just waiting to be dethawed and eaten. Perfect forethought.

Here's the thing: quiche is dead easy. Pie shell, cheese, egg, milk/cream and an appropriate filling matched to the cheese. Toss it in the oven for about 45 minutes, and then experience deliciousness. What's even better, is that making multiple quiches really is not significantly more work than making one quiche. So, when I do make quiche I try to do three or four at a time and we freeze the excess.

Which lets me spend my day writing and drinking lattes and cleaning, rather than cooking when I'm not in the mood.